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Weekend Mailbag: Ask questions, get "answers"

Answers of a kind, anyway.

By J.K. Ward
Matt Cardy/Getty Images

I don't know if you heard, but a certain prospective baseball website opened up a new location around the corner, so between Jet/Shark style rumbles we must reaffirm our commitment to writing new things. Also, based on our recently conducted survey, our readers asked for more weekend content.

Well, ask and you shall (somewhat) receive. During the week, people ask questions. On the weekend, I answer them. Questions can range from baseball to life and everything in between. Answers will vary depending on my mood, but I'll do my best to take some time with the better ones. Got a question about the White Sox? Ask. Want to pose a hypothetical? Say, what if baseball caps were gloves, and gloves were just leather bowls? Ask.

How does asking questions work?

JK: Pretty much like this.

Isn't this just an excuse to get writing prompts because you can't come up with any original ideas?

JK: Kind of, but that's a hurtful way to put it. It's more about engaging the community, both as a Royals fan and a living, breathing person with what passes for emotions and interests nowadays.

What if I don't care what you think?

JK: Then don't ask anything.

LOL then you'll have no content, huh?

JK: I'm having a conversation with myself, so I think I'll make do either way.

Onto the first group of questions:

Thoughts on Daredevil?

JK: Season 2 started out slow, got better. The "no killing" moralism was a rough sell through the first four episodes (mainly because it has been done before, but also because justifiable killing is a flimsy pretense), but it's the impetus of a narrative arc that continued into the latter part of the season. Including some troubling representations of Asian stereotypes, a weird bit of character narrative with Elektra, and a literal plot hole, I'd give the season like a, B/B+.

There's probably no such thing, but if you feel like you have to use whiskey to sip down what is, essentially, grilled bologna on a bun, then you're probably looking for a whiskey to match. So, Jack Daniels comes to mind. Jim Beam. Copper Pony Rye is pretty good, and honestly Wild Turkey American Honey is smooth as all get out. If you don't mind spending a little more, then Yellow Rose would pair nicely with an all-beef American plumper.

Well, on the evening the question was asked, Yordano Ventura started. Today's starter is Edinson Volquez.

Dyson's timetable at this point is 'not soon enough.' Congrats on Rey Fuentes getting his first hit with the Royals, a two-run single that gave Kansas City the lead Friday night, but he's not Jarrod Dyson. The sample size is so small that drawing conclusions would be as foolish as making claims on Joakim Soria's performance after three appearances, the same way that people were quick to draw conclusions on Kelvin Herrera, and Greg Holland, and literally any other late inning reliever that has had a bad game to start the season. That being said, Fuentes has not exactly impressed at the plate or in the field.

Anyways, Dyson is said to be progressing ahead of schedule, and he started his rehab assignment this weekend. Someone will probably correct me, but I believe rehab assignments for position players are capped out at 20 days, which means he'd have to be put back on the 25-man by April 29th/30th or moved to the 60-day disabled list.

Barring a setback, my guess would be that he's back by the Baltimore series (April 22-24), but probably not before the start of the Detroit series on April 19th.

Probably, but it doesn't really bother me right now. Soria's performance so far is disconcerting but not concerning. He left a curveball over the plate against Byunh-ho Park, which is a bad idea because Park murders baseballs. His first outing was a combination of issues—lack of command, nerves, adrenaline, bad luck, what have you. We've seen it before.

Herrera has been dominant to start the season, which makes the answer of 'yes' easier, but given his history with the team, his prior performance, and the fact that he's really good, the case could be made that he should be the 8th inning guy. I don't necessarily think that there's a wrong way to order them (yet), and Soria holds a special place in my heart (and obviously Dayton Moore's), and he was really good in Pittsburgh last year, and everywhere else other than Detroit.

Soria still has a deceptive fastball, he still has the slider/changeup secondaries and the sweeping curve. Herrera still has the ludicrous fastball and slider, and a changeup that comes in at 92mph. It'll be fine either way.

I like Herrera as the 7th inning guy, though, because it means (or implies) that Yost is more likely to use him in a tight game in the 6th, and Herrera is who I would rather have on the mound in those situations.

Maybe in 2014. 2015 was far more stressful, combative, destructive, and emotional. 2014 was a madman's fever dream writ large in the landscape of the real.

Well, if we're going by titular analogue, then:

2013: A New Hope 
2014: The Force Awakens
2015: Empire Strikes Back 

If you want to do it by content, then it's probably:

2013: Attack of the Clones (there's some things happening, kinda interesting, but overly long and clearly not going anywhere)
2014: Empire Strikes Back (Upstart rebels are reprimanded by Imperial forces)
2015: The Force Awakens ("What do you think you'll see if I do?" "The face of my son.")

What's the gap in quality? Like, are we talking zircons and embossed steel instead of diamonds and gold? Or are we talking glass and plastic, essentially a Ring Pop without the flavor?

I dunno. I wouldn't buy one, let alone wear one. But, I'm not one for jewelry. I think the last time I wore anything so ostentatious was a gold chain in 7th grade, and brief flirtations with wearing a watch my freshman year of high school (a Fossil watch, because nothing says 'Please for the love of G-d I just want to fit in' like a steel Fossil watch).

There's the fallacy of association. Wearing the ring implies you were intimately involved, which you weren't. It's not like a shirt, or a hat, which are functional as well communicative. Rings are adornment, and that's basically it.

But really, it's about remembrance. It's a memento, a totem, a reminder of a season. If you need a ring to recall what should be an unforgettable season, then you probably weren't around enough to earn the memories.

What are you going to call [this weekend mailbag thing]?

JK: I have no idea. Reader's choice? Comment with the most rec's gets to be the name of the mailbag for the next week.

Tune in next time for more stuff.

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